I started off on Pendragon by attending their training day down in Nottingham, this consisted of 2 and a half days of so call "training" on working in a dealership. Most of the training consisted of learning largely irreverent things which would be little to no help once introduced to the working environment.
Once I was placed at my dealership it became clear to me that I was required to work well over my contracted 40 hours a week (averaging around 60) and was made to feel guilty about taking scheduled one day a week off. You are not paid for any of these extra hours and you also don't get bank holidays off despite this being in your contract.
The actual role itself is mainly based outside, you are moving cars about and waiting for customers. You soon learn that if a customer is 'just having a look' you are in trouble, because most likely management will be watching to check they are coming inside to buy a car that day, despite whatever reason you give for them not wanting to buy at that moment.
Overall the role is humiliating and needs serious consideration from anyone who is thinking about applying. You are given no support, training and spend most of your time being belittled by management who think you should know absolutely everything about selling a car after a week of working there.
The graduate scheme has clearly been used as a cost cutting exercise by Pendragon in which they are able to recruit business executives on a base salary without paying them any commission what so ever.
